The Fifth Race meets the Reclaimers
by firstprime1230
Summary: After the defeat of the Goa'uld and the Wraith in a civil war, Earth decides to send out the USS George Hammond to a new galaxy where the Ancients were said to have met an advanced race the rivaled themselves. But when they arrive they discover a galaxy at war, and another enemy that causes them to step back into the action less they spread to other parts of the universe.
1. Chapter 1

**Just so everyone knows this is a AU stargate universe, incase you didn't realize since its pretty obvious, where the Asgard are still alive and didn't give their entire knowledge to the Taur'i, and they haven't encountered the ori yet. thus the taru'i had to improve and create new technolgies to help beef up their ships and such.**

Chapter 1

Several years had passed since the defeat of the Goa'uld Empire at the hands of the Taur'i and the Free Jaffa. After their defeat, the Jaffa quickly consolidated their new nation making their capital on Dakara as testament to their freedom. Afterwards they recovered every ship that the Goa'uld had as well as those take over by the replicators, thereby cementing their position as the largest military power in the galaxy with hundreds of Ha'tak class ships and various others in their fleet.  
Thanks to Teal'c's knowledge of his time spent with the Taur'i, the Jaffa's tactics and weapons changed along with the end to their enslavement: new weapons, armor, and even ground vehicles had redefined the Jaffa military machine, allowing them to much better combat organized militaries such as the Taur'i. Never again would they have to resort to orbital bombardment or air support just to win a battle.  
Their form of government had taken a form of democracy: the High Council were members all elected by popular vote while the military leader was elected by the Council based on his military prowess and leadership skills. After all the Jaffa were still a warrior culture at heart, and as such their military positions were chosen by their experience and battles won.  
All the former human slaves of the Goa'uld were now not only free, but were offered jobs by the Free Jaffa to basically do the jobs they did before. Now, however, they weren't being forced to and were given pay and benefits for their work and service, as well as protection under the Free Jaffa Nation.

The Taur'i, in turn, had been just as busy. The IOA and Homeworld Command had both realized that with the threat of the Goa'uld eliminated, now was the time to use what technology Earth had acquired to build up their own power: namely building up Earth's small fleet. Larger mining operations had been established offworld to allow for more materials to be gathered for the ship building process. Thanks to the Asgard's help, they were able to construct larger shipyards at Area 51, enough so that up to ten ships could be docked or built at a time.  
The SGC's top scientists were equally busy, coming up with new upgrades to help give the Taur'i fleet an edge against enemy fleets, as well as help provide better protection for the planet. While the shields and hyperdrives the Asgard had provided were extremely advanced, Earth ships didn't have the necessary power to use them to their full potential. To that end, they had developed large naquadah reactors, roughly the size of a large truck, along with two smaller secondary reactors that provided power alongside it. Combined with their already advanced naquadah generators these allowed their shields to withstand fire from three standard Ha'tak for an hour of continuous fire, and allowed them to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other in about a day's time.  
In addition to these upgrades, Earth finally made headway in developing their own energy weapons. Using the prototype Dr Felger had made, countless intact plasma weapons recovered from the Goa'uld, and data they received on advanced plasma weapons from the Ancient database on Atlantis, they had managed to create a plasma cannon that was capable of taking down the shields of an Anubis upgraded Ha'tak. They also created orbital satellites and planetary defense turrets, similar to what the Tollan had used, as part of Earth's defense grid which included the already potent Ancient Drone Platform.  
Earth also went about setting up more permanent bases around the galaxy, as well as reinforcing their presence in the Pegasus galaxy with the Wraith civil war allowing them to have some breathing room from the Wraith.

Working together the two superpowers of the Milky Way used their combined resources to secure the galaxy against any and all threats they might encounter in the future. Now the galaxy was experiencing an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity, something that hadn't been seen in over ten thousand years, and Pegasus was well on its way to experiencing the same life style. But the days of plenty and peace were not to last, as the Taur'i again began to explore out into the universe.

**XxXxXxXxXx **

**November 3, 2011  
BC-304: USS **_**George Hammond**_**  
Andromeda Galaxy**

The _Hammond_ was currently in hyperspace, having been in hyperspace for almost a week. Since there were no real threats in the Milky Way and the Wraith were currently bogged down in their own civil war, Earth found that it had a few ships that were not being used as frontline warships. Those that weren't, like the Hammond, were re-tasked to explore the galaxy and seek out new life, as Star Trek so elegantly put.

Colonel Samantha Carter, former member of SG-1, was the ship's commander. Years of experience with alien technology, being on SG-1, and being commander of Atlantis for a time made her more than qualified to command the 304, a ship whose name carried a great legacy. A legacy that Carter was determined not to sully by letting anything happen to the ship.

There were several reasons why the Hammond was traveling to the Andromeda galaxy: one was to explore the one of the closer galaxy to the Milky Way, another was that according to the Ancient database they had travelled their themselves and met a powerful race that inhabited it. Apparently they had some technology that rivaled the Ancients in certain areas, which in and of itself was an incredible feat. The only other known races to do that were the Asgard, and the humans of the Ori but their knowledge was given to them by Ascended Beings. So here they were, heading to a set of coordinates that supposedly was where the Ancients met this mysterious race.

"Ma'am, we're nearing the coordinates of our destination," Major Marks spoke, the major having been handpicked by Carter to run navigation for this mission.

"Okay, weaps' activate shields as soon as we drop out of hyperspace. I don't want to be caught off guard if there is anything in system that isn't friendly," she ordered her weapons officer Captain Riley.

Soon the Hammond dropped out of hyperspace and decelerated to a slow pace thousands of meters away from a planet that appeared to be a life giving world. Immediately alarms rang out all over the bridge, alerting the crew that something was seriously wrong.

"Ma'am! I'm reading nearly thirty vessels in orbit and around the planet. Scans show they're engaged in a massive battle," Marks said.

In the distance of the viewport everyone could see a large space battle happening over the planet. There were two sides that could be clearly seen when the external cameras onboard the 304 zoomed and enhanced the battle, showing it on the HUD that popped up in front of the viewport.

One side, what the crew figured was the attacking side since they were pushing towards the planet, had ships that were mostly purple-white in color, and had a fluid shape similar to the Asgard. This side clearly was winning.

The defenders were very surprising to the Taur'i crew, in that their ships were extremely similar to their own 304's: grey, blocky, and overall had a more utilitarian look and feel to them. And like the Earth ships, they appeared to use projectile weapons as well.

Sam tapped her com to the engineering room, "Sujanha, what can you tell me about these ships?" she asked the Asgard scientist onboard.

All of Earth's ships had an Asgard scientist to help oversee and guide the human crew members, as well as to ensure that none of their technology was being used for less than noble reasons. The Asgard were still rebuilding after the defeat of the Replicators and finally achieving a breakthrough in their genetic degradation caused by their constant cloning of clones. But they had more than enough scientists to spare to help their allies in whatever endeavors they had, even sending some of their people to help unlock the secrets of Atlantis so both races could benefit from the data.

Sujanha spoke back into the com as she went over sensor data being collected, "I am afraid the Asgard have never encountered vessels such as these. However, I am able to learn a great deal about their internal and external functions thanks to our ship's sensors. The defending force's ships posses no shields what's so ever, nor do they have any energy weapons. They are using some sort of large accelerator cannon that launches 600 ton slugs at around 30 kilometers per second based on sensor data, as well as several automatic point defense weapons similar to your railguns, though not as powerful."  
"The attacking force is using plasma based energy weapons, though their version is unrefined, but impressive as they appear to be able to guide it though how they do it is unknown. It is also not concentrated into bolts like the Goa'uld or your own weapons have done, though I cannot determine at this time whether or not they are of less or greater power. Nor can I determine if they are as effective against this ship's armor since I am not detecting any naquadah or trinium present in either forces. These vessels also posses shields, though I can safely say that they are inferior to even older Goa'uld shields as they cannot withstand many shots from those accelerator cannons."

Back on the bridge Carter was assessing the tactical situation, as well as debating what they should do. The defending force, having clearly inferior technology, was losing badly even though they outnumbered their foe two to one. They were putting up a good fight, however, and taking out as many ships as they could.

Carter honestly didn't know what to do; intervening on either side would cause the other to attack them. At the same time doing nothing was just as bad; she couldn't just sit back while these two groups slaughtered each other.

"Marks bring us in to about 10 thousand kilometers outside of the battle," she ordered, ignoring the slightly unsure face of Marks who nonetheless followed the order.  
"Riley have all railguns on standby for defensive fire, but don't power the plasma cannons. I don't want us appearing aggressive," she ordered the weapons officer.

The _Hammond_ quickly accelerated towards the battle, neither side apparently paying attention to them meaning they either didn't notice them or didn't care. The 304 class were 586 meters in length, slightly smaller than a Ha'tak. That being said many of the ships in this battle were many times larger, the largest belonging to the attacking force that was 5346 meters long, making it the largest vessel seen to date barring a Wraith Hiveship. So it was no wonder that they ignored a seemingly defenseless and outgunned ship heading for them.

"Open a channel to both fleets, all frequencies and subspace channels so they get the message, as well as all languages we have on file," Carter order Marks.

After a confirmation from Marks acknowledging the channel was open Cater spoke, "Attention, this is Colonel Samantha Carter of the Taur'i Battlecruiser George Hammond. Please cease fire, there is another way we can resolve whatever dispute your two peoples are having without bloodshed. We can act as a unbiased third party and make sure both sides are treated equally and fairly. Please, as clearly advanced races you must know there is another way. So again, please, cease fire," she stated, surprised at her little speech that she was sure Daniel would have been proud of.

But instead of the fleets ceasing fire, the battle seemed to almost intensify. The attacking force pressed their attack, almost angry at the transmission they received and were taking it out on the defenders. Whether or not the message got through to the defenders, Carter didn't know since they were too busy trying not to be destroyed to respond.

An alarm rang out on Riley's desk, "Ma'am, three ships of the attacking force are on an intercept course with us."

'Dammit' Carter thought to herself as she stood up to get closer to the HUD. She used her finger to switch the camera focus on the three incoming ships. The largest was probably their equivalent of a cruiser being 1782 meters in length, while the other two were 956 meters and were the smallest ships they were deploying.

"I'm reading an increase in energy output. They're firing," Riley stated in a calm voice.

Most people would have been atleast a little nervous at the prospect of being fired at, but everyone on the crew of the _Hammond_ had combat experience against the Wraith and a few rouges who had access to some of the things left after the collapse of the Goa'uld Empire, such as Ha'tak vessels. They all knew just how powerful the Asgard shield was aboard the 304, so they weren't too concerned, even if they didn't actually know the full capabilities of these unknowns.

The bridge crew watched as the bright red lights on the bows of the ships released, accelerating towards the battlecruiser with red vapor trailing behind. Moments later they impacted the blue shield, briefly blocking the crews view out of the window though they could still see what was happening with the external cameras.

"Damage?" asked Carter.

Riley shook her head, "Minimal, some drop in percentage but they're already shoring back up."

Carter let out a sigh of relief, glad to see that their weapons weren't all that powerful. Atleast when compared to Asgard technology. She'd bet those weapons, based on some of the readings they too from the impact, were _atleast_ equal to a standard Hat'ak plasma cannons.

"Try hailing them, let's see if we can get them to cease fire when they realize their attacks aren't getting through," she ordered, as the enemy fired a few more salvos.

A few silent moments went by as Marks attempted to open a channel with the ships, but looked back at Carter and shook his head.  
"They're refusing all hails ma'am."

Carter turned back to Riley, "Bring the plasma cannons online, target the smaller ships first."

In an instant all 16 plasma cannons came online, half targeting one of the smaller ships and the other half doing the same. Seconds later they released a volley of green plasma bolts at each ship. Taur'i designed plasma cannons emitted green colored plasma do to the Taur'i method of creating and containing plasma.

All the cannons had targeted specific points: weapons, power sources scanned by the _Hammond's_ sensors, and the bridge. The crew watched, surprised, when the bolts slammed into the ships tearing them apart on impact; seconds after the volley ended once could see the massive damage to the two surprisingly unshielded ships: their hulls were all but gone, burned and broken off by the sheer heat and power of the plasma bolts. Suddenly the two ships exploded, showering the larger vessel with debris and shockwaves from the explosions.

'I think that got their attention' Carter thought to herself. She was surprised that those ships didn't posses any shields despite their relatively large size. Even small vessels such as Traveler ships possessed shields.

The remaining vessel continued to fire on the Hammond, despite none of its attacks having any effect on the smaller ship's shields.

"Are they still refusing hails?" asked Carter.

She couldn't believe that they were so unwilling to even talk. Granted they just took out two of their ships, but that was only after being fired on first and several attempts at getting a cease fire.

"Yes ma'am," Marks replied.

"Fine, no one can say we didn't try peace. Fire," she ordered Riley.

Again another volley of bolts shot out at the larger vessel. Its shields held for the first few bolts, but they were quickly overwhelmed and soon the ship faced the full bombardment of the _Hammond_. Again, like the ships before, the vessel stayed alive long enough to show off just how damaged it was before finally exploding.

"All targets neutralized ma'am," Riley spoke.

"Status of the rest of their fleet?" Carter asked.

Marks entered several commands into his console, "Several more ships have broken off and are heading this way. In fact their entire fleet seems to be holding on their attack and regrouping."

"They might think we're from the defense force, given our similarities in ship building. And since none of their ships have shields or weapons they might not know what to think of us," Carter guessed.

Looking out of the viewport with the assistance of the HUD she could see the enemy fleet backing off a bit, while the defending force used this time to reform and consolidate their defense. Despite out numbering the remaining enemy almost twenty to seven, three having been destroyed by the _Hammond_, many of their ships looked heavily damaged.

"Marks, take us into hyperspace and put us between the two fleet," Carter ordered.

Several moments later the battlecruiser exited hyperspace directly in between the two fleets, giving both sides its port and starboard respectively.

"Ma'am, I'm reading the defending forces locking up their weapons," Riley said as several alerts rang out on her console.

"At us?" the colonel asked.

Riley shook her head, "No they are targeting the enemy fleet. The enemy is also targeting us."

"And they are still refusing hails ma'am," Marks stated before Carter could even ask.

Sighing, Carter zoomed in on the HUD, picking a particular location within the fleet. The flagship, specifically. According to sensor data, the massive five kilometer warship was a match for Goa'uld Flagships, which were known to be able to take on entire fleets of Ha'taks. Not that that would matter against the _Hammond_, but Carter wasn't taking any risks here.

"Marks take us to within ten thousand kilometers of the enemy fleet."

"Weaps, get me a set of coordinates inside the flagship and arm one mark eight, beam away on my command. Then target their cruiser sized ships with the plasma weapons and their unshielded ships with our railguns," she ordered.

"Open a channel," she told Marks, who nodded in confirmation.  
"Attention attacking force, this is your last chance to surrender. As you just saw we can destroy your vessels quite easily. If you do not cease your attack we will be forced to respond in kind. You've been warned," she said, and turned to Marks signaling to turn off the channel.

Suddenly the enemy fleet let loose a volley of those strange plasma weapons, only taking a few moments before impacting to shield of the _Hammond_.

"Riley, send the nuke," Carter ordered.

There was a brief pause before the center of the enemy fleet blew up in what appeared to be miniature sun. The flagship was incinerated, leaving nothing behind but microscopic particles. The blast wave shot out towards the other two shielded ships, impacting their shields and overloading some of them according to the Asgard sensors, then finally hitting the unshielded ships by slamming into them with shear kinetic force.

"Fire all batteries," Carter ordered.

In an instant all of the Hammond's weapons erupted in overwhelming fire power. The plasma bolts cut into the ship's whose shields were down, causing heavy damage before the two simply exploded from the punishment it was taking. The railguns opened up on the smaller ships, their armor piercing rounds tearing their hulls apart surprisingly well where as usually these weapons would be but useless against shielded ships or ships with extremely tough armor like Hiveships.

After a few minutes the battle was over. The enemy's ships all destroyed except for some large hull fragments. The _Hammond's_ crew relaxed into their positions, happy they won and came out undamaged other than some very minor shield loss. Despite the 304's impressive performance in this instance, they were still outgunned when facing Hiveships and only ever won when they had superior numbers on their side.

"Ma'am, we're being hailed on a radio frequency and video from one of the defending forces ships," Marks stated.

Carter walked over to the large monitor on the other side of the bridge, "On screen."

The screen came to life showing, surprisingly, a male human who looked around fifty or so standing in what had to be their bridge. His uniform was clean and had many medals on it.

"This Captain William Steiss of the UNSC _Orion's Belt_, identify yourself immediately," he stated in a gruff voice.

Carter was surprised how... Earth-like this particular human culture was being so far away from its influence in the Milky Way.

"I am Colonel Samantha Carter of the Taur'i Battlecruiser _George Hammond_. We are peaceful explorers who only wanted to meet you and your people, discuss our cultures and possibly a friendship for the future," Carter said, again borrowing some Daniel's speeches.

The man, Captain Steiss, looked very confused and then somewhat angry, "Taree? What the hell is that, some sort of new insurrectionist movement?"

Carter in turn had no idea what he meant by insurrectionist; possibly indicating their civilization was in the middle of a civil war.  
'Was that who we were fighting?' she thought, but quickly threw that idea out the window since the differences in technology and look of the two forces were completely different.  
Not a good time to have a rebellion when you're fighting an alien foe who had more advanced technology.

"The word Taur'i is what the peoples of our galaxy have named us, and we've adopted the name ever since. I'm not sure what sort of insurrection your having or referring to, but I could contact my people to bring in some diplomats to help resolve that conflict, as well as try to negotiate a peace with whatever race those ships belonged to," she stated calmly.

"Peace! With the Covenant! How could you even suggest that? Don't you know what they've done to us?!" he yelled at the colonel.

Again, Carter was surprised with his response. The only times she had ever heard anyone ever refer to a race, this Covenant she was assuming was the race whose ships they destroyed belonged to, with such contempt and hatred were the Goa'uld and the Wraith.

"Look, I'm sorry if I offended you but we really have no idea who this Covenant is or who you are. We aren't from this galaxy, we came here to explore and we were hoping you might explain what is going on in this galaxy," Carter explained.

Normally, protocol was not to explain to a race who you were just starting to talk to that you were extragalactic, but this seemed like the only way to convince these people who clearly thought they were part of whatever rebellion was happening. Plus, they were clearly advanced so she figured they could handle the truth.

She was wrong.

"Another galaxy?! Haha, you really expect me to believe that. You Innies must be getting crazy being caught off from civilization. Now why don't you tell me the truth, and explain how you managed to make a ship that could blow a Covenant fleet up before I have my fleet open up on you," the Captain stated confidently.

Either he clearly thought his ships' weapons could damage the Hammond, or he was hoping that the battle had damaged the ship to the point where they couldn't withstand an assault.  
'Or he's nuts' thought Carter.  
Shaking her head she cut the channel, turned and walked back to her seat.

"Marks, take us into hyperspace," she ordered.

Seconds later the 304 accelerated away from the fleet, even as the force tried to target the ship but couldn't get a lock since it was moving too fast. Suddenly a hyperspace window opened, the Hammond shooting into the opening and leaving behind a very confused human fleet who had no idea what just happened.

**XxXxXxXxXx **

**So this is a new story that is obviously a crossover with Stargate and Halo. Now before I get ganged up on by all the Halo fans, This is what I think everyone's respective tech is. If you read carefully you'll notice I did say that Covenant Plasma tech is as good as the Goa'uld. This will not be a Stargate curbstomping Halo fic, the Covenant were unprepared and didn't have very many ships, especially their more powerful ones. Also the Taur'i only have a few ships available, so they won't be able to fight the hundreds of ships the Covenant can bring to bear alone. I hope everyone likes this one, and I haven't abandoned my other fics they're still going as well.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**November 3, 2011  
BC-304: USS **_**George Hammond**_**  
Andromeda Galaxy**

Carter was standing in front of the screen on the other side of the bridge, about an hour after they jumped out of the system inhabited by the humans calling themselves the UNSC. Once they dropped out of hyperspace she had the Marks run a scan of the immediate area and hyperspace for any incoming ships. When the scans came up empty, she had Marks open a subspace link back to Homeworld Command.

"So these guys are human?" asked General O'Neill, head of Homeworld Command.

Carter nodded, "Yes sir. Pretty similar to us overall, especially when compared to other human cultures in the Milky Way and Pegasus."

"And these other guys, this... covenant. Any idea why they're going Goa'uld on their asses?" he asked, commenting on the similarities they possessed with the former rulers of the galaxy.

"No idea sir, could be any number of reasons. They're clearly more advanced, however, and the humans there only survived because we intervened. We're sending you sensors logs and readouts we recorded from the battle," she explained as she nodded to a crewman who sent in a few commands on his console doing exactly that.

"How big of a threat are these guys?" asked Jack as he turned to look off camera, most likely confirming the subspace data package that had just been sent had arrived.

"Well the overall I'd say minimal. Neither of the two sides weapons technology is overly advanced, and this covenant's shield tech is considerably weaker than the Asgard's or Ancients. That being said, we have no idea how fast their hyperdrives are, neither do we know how large their two cultures," she further explained.

"The IOA is gona have a field day with this," Jack sighed as he pinched his nose in frustration at the thought of the meeting he was gona have with them.

"Well we did offer them the chance to cease fire several times, we even let them pound on our shields for a bit," she stated defensively.

Jack raised his hands, "I know, I know. I didn't say anything, hell in your situation I'd have probably opened up on them as soon as they fired on me."

She nodded, knowing he wasn't accusing her of anything, just pointing out that the IOA probably would when they got back to Earth. This would probably put another black mark on her record in the eyes of the IOA.

"So you want us to head home?" she asked, getting ready to tell Marks to take the _Hammond_ back into hyperspace.

Jack shook his head, "No I want you and the Hammond to stay out there for now. Once the IOA get wind of this I'm sure they'll want to send a representative out to talk to these _UNSC_ guys. Until then see if you can't learn more about them, but don't interact with them until we can get another ship out there," he ordered.

Carter nodded, then cut the subspace transmission. She walked back to the command chair and sat down, relaxing into the seat. She knew when she returned to Earth she's no doubt have several IOA dignitaries knocking on her door, but she also knew that she's have General O'Neill and the President on her side.

"Marks, take us into hyperspace and drop us out just outside their solar system. We'll move in on sublight engines, but once we're out of hyperspace activate the cloak," she ordered.

Soon the Hammond was back in hyperspace heading to the system, planning on doing recon for the next week until Earth could send out another ship.

**XxXxXxXxXx **

**February 12, 2551  
UNSC Prowler: **_**Nightfury  
**_**Cascadia, Alpha Antini **

Captain Steiss was currently sitting in a briefing room onboard the ONI Prowler that had been sent form Reach. Apparently this Prowler was already in route to Cascadia, for what reason Steiss didn't know. It dropped out of Slipspace outside of the sensor range of the UNSC fleet, as per ONI protocol, and picked up on the radio traffic of the UNSC fleet engaged in battle. By the time it had decided to assist in battle, the fight was over thanks to that strange ship that obliterated the fleet.

Now the Captain was waiting for the ONI officer to come in and _'question'_ him about this ship: who was on it, what it did, where it came from. All he hoped was that he wouldn't be brought back to an ONI base for further _'questioning'_.

Suddenly the door to the room slid open, and in walked in a ONI officer, a Lieutenant by the looks of her. She looked like your average ONI spook, or as average as they could look. She was going over a datapad in her hand, not even bothering to look at Steiss before she sat the pad down and then taking a seat herself.

"Captain Steiss, according to your ships sensor logs and your own testimony, an unknown ship entered the battle and, according to you, destroyed the remaining Covenant fleet single handedly. And that when you contacted them, the unknown ship was crewed by humans," she stated, reading off the mission reports that were collected from the ship and the UNSC crews.

Steiss nodded, "Yes, that's correct. It was small, about the size of our frigates, actually it resembled the Paris and Charon class ships. Based on imaging from our ships and satellites, it had minimal armament: defense turrets and missile launchers. Hell, they had almost a dozen windows around their ship. "

"And according to these reports, this ship possessed advanced shields and weapons," she stated, but she clearly wanted him to elaborate with his own words.

"Yes, when they appeared they appeared out of now where. We detected no slipspace jumps, but we did detect a burst of... exotic energies that frankly I have no what they mean, but our A.I. said that they were unlike anything he'd seen. After that they sent out a message, that's included in my report, about wanting us and the Covies to cease fire, talking about peace and a bunch of other tree lover crap," he said with slight anger and disgust.  
"Then the Covies sent over a pair of corvettes and CCS-Battlecruiser, a little over kill if you ask me. Well, until they opened up on it with some plasma torpedoes. I thought that this was just another massacred ship, not the last in this fight, but then the ship emerged from the plasma completely unscathed, surrounded by some blue energy shield, different from what the Covies use."

"So it's safe to say that someone didn't just take a Covenant shield generator and slap it on a human ship?" the Lt asked.

Steiss shrugged, "I honestly have no idea, that's something you should ask the eggheads when they get done analyzing the data."

"And then what happened?" she asked.

The Captain looked at the ONI spooked incredulously, "Isn't this all in the reports you received?"

"Yes but I need to hear it from you," she stated simply.

He looked at her confused, but he continued, "Well after that they let the Covies pound on their shields for a bit, no visible damage could be seen, then they opened up on their alien asses with some sort of green energy weapon. It tore the corvettes apart and after collapsing the shield of the battlecruiser in a few shots destroyed it as well."

The Lt nodded, having read that this _Taur'i_ ship possessed advanced shields and energy weapons superior to that of Covenant ships to atleast a CCS class ship, how it would fare against a more powerful ship was unknown.

"After that they... appeared in front of the fleet out of a blue... rip that appeared out of nowhere between us and the remaining Covenant fleet. They sent out another message asking for the Covenant to cease fire, again, but were met by plasma fire. Then they somehow detonated a... _massive_ nuke in the center of their fleet; _inside_ the Covenant Carrier!" he exclaimed, getting caught up in his relive of recent events before getting himself back under control.  
"Then they opened up in the rest of the fleet, using not only their energy weapons but their turrets that fired slugs at an incredible velocity. If what our scans showed is right, they appeared to be fully automatic railguns, and they wreaked havoc on the unarmored corvettes while the energy weapons finished off the cruisers whose shields were overloaded by the nuclear detonation."

"At which point you contacted this ship, the _Hammond_, and demanded them to explain themselves or you'd open fire on them?" she asked, a hard look in her eyes.

Steiss paled a bit, realizing what he had done by his actions: ONI wanted this ship, whoever they were, and Steiss had scared them off.

"I... only meant to threaten them, I thought they could have been insurrectionists," he weakly defended.

Despite him technically outranking her, ONI spooks were given... special privileges and could very well have him court marshaled or worse.

Suddenly the com system activated in the room, "_Ma'am_."

The Lt looked over at the speaker in annoyance, "What?" she asked harshly, irritated at being interrupted.

"_Sorry ma'am, but... they're back_."

**XxXxXxXxXx **

**November 12, 2011 (3 hours before)  
BC-304: USS **_**George Hammond**_**  
Andromeda Galaxy**

It had been a week and two days until Earth had finally gotten a ship out to the Andromeda galaxy, caring the delegates that the IOA had sent along to open talks with this UNSC. Carter was once again waiting in the command chair, having been told that their sensors picked up an incoming ship in hyperspace.

"Ma'am, contact coming out of hyperspace," Marks informed her.

They all watched as a hyperspace window opened, the familiar shape of the BC-304 decelerating from the incredible speeds it had been traveling in hyperspace. It slowed to a halt just in front of the _Hammond_.

An alert rang out on Mark's console, "IFF confirms ship as the USS _Dauntless_. They have the IOA delegates and are prepared to beam aboard."

Carter nodded, and soon the front of the bridge was consumed in two bright columns of white-blue light. Once they faded, they were replaced by two very familiar figures: Richard Woolsey and Dr Daniel Jackson.

"Woolsey? Daniel? I'm surprised the IOA sent you two," she said as she looked at the two men who just beamed aboard.

Woolsey was busy running Atlantis and keeping up with the Coalition of Planets in Pegasus, and Daniel was keeping busy with the various races in the Milky Way. Bottom line these were two very busy men who had a lot on their plate and really didn't need to deal more races at war.

"Yes, well, the IOA believed that myself and Daniel had the most experience dealing with new races, and being that this was a new galaxy, they decided to bring us in," Woolsey explained.

"Plus things are pretty stable in the Milky Way and Pegasus, so we can afford to take a break and come," Daniel included.

Woolsey sighed, "Although I suspect it has more so to do with the IOA wanting to put a new person in charge of Atlantis. With myself gone, they will use this time to push their agenda."

Carter understood that; the same thing happened to her when she returned to Earth from her own tenure at Atlantis. Of course Woolsey was the one who had replaced her, but she had come to respect him since then. He had changed being leader of Atlantis, and for the better. Even Jack had a respect for him after what happened when the Replicators invaded Atlantis.

"Well, I doubt general O'Neill will let that happen. In the meantime, let's head down to the briefing room so we can discuss how to plan this out," Carter suggested as they left the bridge.

Soon the three were sitting in the Hammond's briefing room going over various materials and topics they would bring up in their meeting with the UNSC, if all went according to plan.

"So once we've established peaceful contact, we'll ask if they would allow us to send over a delegation for further negotiations," Daniel explained.

"You two sure you want to go over there?" she asked, not too keen on the idea.

Woolsey nodded, "Yes, we believe that meeting them in person would be the best course of action. It shows an amount of respect and trust on our part."

"Plus if we run into trouble we can always beam out," Daniel stated.

"So how are we getting over there? I don't want to use our beaming unless it's absolutely necessary," Carter stated.

"We brought a Puddle Jumper for use as a transport, it will also allow us to bring a small security transport," Woolsey explained.

Carter nodded and stood up, "Alright I'll have the _Dauntless_ transfer the Jumper to the Hammond, and I'll put a security team together. You two should get ready."

And with that the three left to go fulfill their various duty's to get ready for the coming meeting, one that would hopefully go better than most first contact missions enacted by Earth.

**XxXxXxXxXx **

The _Hammond_ dropped out of hyperspace several thousand kilometers away from the planet so as not to spook the fleet parked in orbit and give the battlecruiser time to raise its shields. They waited there for a few minutes, but didn't detect the UNSC fleet powering weapons or preparing for attack.

"Ma'am, we're being hailed by the _Orion's Belt_," Marks alerted Carter.

"On screen," she ordered as she walked over to the large screen on the wall to the left.

It came to life, showing once again the bridge of the other human ship. But instead of the Captain they had seen earlier, there was a woman in a black uniform with a hard look in her eye. She seemed to look over the 304 bridge, or what she could see from her point of view, with an analytic stare before turning her attention back to Carter.

"Can I assume you are Colonel Carter?" she asked.

Carter nodded, "Yes, but who are you? Where's Captain Steiss?"

"I am a Lt in the UNSC, Naval Intelligence. My rank should suffice for now, she stated simply.  
"Captain Steiss has been temporarily relieved of command pending an investigation for his tactics and decisions made during the battle that happened here."

Carter guessed she was talking about the UNSC Captain who threatened them when they were last here. But what troubled her was the look in this Naval Intelligence officer's eyes: it was the same look she'd seen in NID agents and such. She had no doubt that this woman had some ulterior motive, but what that was at the time she could not say.

"Well that's unfortunate. But anyway, onto why we're here: we would like to send a delegation over to open talks between our two people," she asked.

The woman looked skeptical, "So you're still claiming to be from another galaxy?"

"Yes, and it is the truth. If you allow us to send a delegation we can prove this," she explained, hoping that the woman would allow Woolsey and Daniel to head over.

"I'm afraid that we cannot approve any type of type of direct interaction at this time without authorization from our leaders, who are based in another star system," the Lt explained.

'So this confirms that this is just a colony' Carter thought to herself.  
"Well, what if we went to them?" she asked.

The woman looked almost angry at Carter for even suggesting that, "I'm afraid we have protocols against taking... non-UNSC vessels to other UNSC controlled systems, especially after an encounter with the Covenant."

"If you're worried about being tracked, you don't have to be with our ship. It's not capable of being tracked in hyperspace," Carter explained.

The woman raised an eyebrow, "Hyperspace? And that is?"

Carter mentally berated herself for the slip of tongue; revealing various technological differences and superiorities unless absolutely necessary was strictly against protocol, although in her defense she assumed these people used hyperspace too like most races.

"It's... our method of faster than light travel," she hesitantly explained, figuring that the little information couldn't hurt.

"So you don't use Slipspace?" the woman asked back.

Now Carter was interested in what this Slipspace was: some new method of FTL or just what they called subspace.

"We could discuss this more in detail if you allowed our people to come over and talk," Carter suggested, trying to get this woman to play ball.

The woman looked down slightly, as if in deep thought. She went about this for a few seconds before snapping her head back to the colonel.

"You say your ship can't be tracked?" she asked demandingly.

Carter nodded, "Yes."

"I will come aboard your ship via transport ship. Is that acceptable?" she asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

Carter nodded, seeing as this was the only way to get to talk to their leaders. Normally this would be a massive breach in protocol, but the marine contingent and other advanced tech onboard would be able to deal with any hostile boarders, Earth having learned from all the times their ships had been taken over by an enemy.

"We'll arrive at your ship within the hour, _Orion's Belt_ out," the Lt finished as the connection cut out.

Carter let out a sigh of relief; so far this 'first' contact mission was going pretty well. She turned back and went to sit in her chair, relaxing into the chair before turning to Marks.

"I want all armories and the engineering room locked down with marines posted outside them. Same goes for other sensitive areas of the ship, and have the port side hangar bay cleared of any sensitive material and all 302's locked down tight," she stated, before thinking of something else to say.  
"Send a subspace message to the Dauntless telling them of our current status and what we're about to do. Tell Colonel Mason that we'll have coordinates for him to follow soon," she said, talking about the 304 parked outside of the solar system.

Marks nodded in confirmation and went about doing everything Carter had just ordered him to do. Carter then got up and headed out of the bridge to find Daniel and Woolsey, and apprise them of the new situation.

**XxXxXxXxXx**

**UNSC Marathon Class: **_**Orion's Belt  
**_**Cascadia, Alpha Antini **

Lt Shannon Orica was currently walking down to one of the many hangar bays aboard the cruiser, intending on meeting the Pelican that was currently awaiting her arrival. Suddenly a voice rang out on her ear piece.

"_Ma'am, what exactly are you doing_?" asked Godfrey, the ONI A.I. onboard the _Nightfury_.

"I'm heading to the hangar bay where I will board Pelican 246 and transfer to the Taur'i Battlecruiser _Hammond_," she stated simply as she continued to walk down the hall.

The A.I. sighed, "_You know what I mean. You're breaking atleast a dozen different protocols right now. There is still too many unknowns about that ship and the people aboard it_."

"I know, but this is too large an opportunity to let slip through our fingers. The technology aboard that ship is unlike anything we've ever seen before. This could change the war," she stated with conviction.

"_Yes, I know that as well. But think about it: an unknown human ship with incredibly advanced technology beyond that of the Covenant just shows up in the nick of time to save Cascadia, then claims to be from another galaxy. Now you want to go over there and take them to Reach_?!" Godfrey asked unbelievingly.

Orica sighed, "Yes I am aware of all the unknowns and dangers, which is why I will being going over alone, and I will set up the auto-pilot on the Pelican to take off and return once I am onboard. Then I will direct them to travel to a nearby star system that is uninhabited as per the Cole Protocol, then I will take them to Reach where hopefully we can get a closer look at their technology."

There was a pause, "..._You're planning on taking the ship_?"

Orica chuckled, "Oh no, based on what we've seen their ship do I can only guess that they have many precautions about taking on boarders or guests, so I highly doubt I'll be able to do much of anything. I would only send a Spartan team in there to take it, but I meant that these people have delegates so we'll see if we can't talk about getting some of their tech."

"_I still think this is a bad idea ma'am, but you're the boss. You should know the HIGHCOM won't like you taking the Hammond to the second most defendable planet in the UNSC, god knows what ONI will do when they find out_," Godfrey warned.

"Again, I know this. But this is bigger than me. This is about the future of the human race, you know the real situation; the real predictions for the next few years if things continue the way they are going, not the crap Section Two puts out," she stated.

This time the A.I. sighed, "_Alright you convinced me. But you're on your own, and if this doesn't work out it's on your head_."

"Acknowledged," was her reply.

Soon she arrived at the Pelican, stepped aboard and moved to the cockpit. Sitting down she flipped on the main power and other systems, preparing it for takeoff.

"_Orion's Belt_ actual this is Pelican 256 requesting clear for takeoff," she stated into the radio.

"_Roger Pelican 256, you are cleared for takeoff. Good luck_," the traffic controller told her.

Orica activated the Pelican's thrusters, lifting the drop ship off the deck and maneuvering it to face the tube that launched airborne craft. Kicking in the main booster engines the Pelican accelerated out of the tube and into space, quickly moving away from the massive cruiser to the smaller Taur'i ship. Once it was within a few hundred kilometers of the ship she activated the Pelican's radio.

"_Hammond_ control this Pelican 256 moving on intercept course, requesting permission to land," she asked into the microphone.

"_Roger that Pelican 256 we have you on our scanners. Maintain current speed and proceed to port side docking bay_," the man on the radio stated.

"Copy that," she replied as she changed course and moved towards the port hangar.

At this range she could see a better view of the ship: a couple dozen of those railguns that were extremely effective against the Covies armor, atleast on their frigates, as well as those cannons that were no doubt the energy weapons they used. On the neck of the ship she could see the missile placements, and behind that what had to be the bridge. Refocusing, she began bringing the Pelican into the port hangar. She noticed that the hangar doors were open, and that people were standing in the open space without any EVA suits of any kind.

'Probably using those shields to maintain pressure and atmosphere' Orica guessed.

As the Pelican passed into the hangar, Orica heard a small op in her ears from the change in pressure. She slowed down the ship to a small hover and turning it around, then gently set her down. Looking out the window she could see Cascadia and the fleet in the distance. Taking a breath she punched in commands that would activate the auto-pilot a minute after she exited the Pelican. Getting up from her seat she walked to the back of the ship and hit the ramp-release button. Slowly the doors lowered, soon revealing the whole hangar bay.  
There were numerous fighters unlike anything the UNSC used, but they, like the _Hammond_, had a look to them that was utterly human. Smaller than longswords, they had wings that angled forward and several missiles underneath them, as well as two gun turrets that stuck out of the front of the nose.

Looking further she saw a group of people waiting for her, so she stepped off the Pelican and moved towards them. As she got closer she saw Colonel Carter, but the others she didn't recognize: a man with glasses and another who was balding in his hair stood on either side of the colonel, plus a security detail.

"Colonel Carter," Orica stated.

The colonel offered her hand, "Lt, welcome aboard the _Hammond_. This is Dr Daniel Jackson and Richard Woolsey, the delegates sent from our people," she introduced the two men.

Orica took the colonel's hand and returned the shake. Suddenly the Pelican activated its engines and took off, heading back to the UNSC fleet.

Carter looked at it while it flew away, "Is it just you?"

Orica nodded, "I didn't want to involve anyone else, this is after all, a rather large breach in our protocol."

"Well, hopefully your leaders will understand this isn't a normal circumstance that those protocols apply to," Daniel tried reassuring her.

"As do I," was her reply.

"Well, let's go up to the briefing room so that we can get those coordinates you have. If you'll follow us Lt... I'm sorry I didn't catch your name?" asked Woolsey.

There was a pause before she responded, "Orica. Lt Orica."

"Orica, please follow us," Carter stated as she motioned for her to follow.

The group left the hangar bay and moved to the bridge, the Taur'i crew careful to not lead them through more sensitive parts of the ship. After traveling though an elevator and several hallways they arrived in the briefing room where they all took a seat. Carter produced a tablet that showed maps of various star systems in the Andromeda galaxy, and other pieces of astronomical data.

"If you could provide us with the coordinates to wherever your leadership is, we can put them into the computer and be there very quickly," Carter explained.

Orica looked at the tablet for a moment before taking out a small crystal computer chip, which she then put into an adapter that she plugged into the port on the tablet. Because of the differences in technology the adapter didn't actually fit correctly, but the connectors that transferred electrical signals and data did just enough so she could transfer the necessary data over. She then handed it back to the colonel, who looked it over and nodded.

"Thank you, we'll be under way shortly. In the meantime just relax, I'll radio down when we've arrived," she thanked and walked out of the bridge, leaving the Lt with Woolsey and Daniel.

"Well, while we wait do you mind if we ask you some questions?" Daniel asked.

Orica thought about it for a moment, then nodded, "Yes, but I won't answer anything that endangers or compromises the security of the UNSC in any way."

Daniel nodded and pulled out a pen and paper pad, "So what does _UNSC_ stand for?"

"United Nations Space Command," she replied.

"So are these nations on your homeworld, or do they refer to a series of planets all with separate forms of government?" Woolsey questioned further.

"It refers to all the nations on Earth who have banded together-" she was suddenly cut off.

"Wait, did you say Earth?" asked Daniel, shocked.

"Yes... Earth is the name of our home planet," she replied, not sure why the doctor was reacting like he was.

Daniel and Woolsey shared a look before standing up and heading for the door. Orica stood as well to follow when her path was blocked by the two men of the security escort.

"What is going on here?" she snapped, not happy that she was being confined to this room.

"We're sorry but something has come up, and we need to discuss it the colonel. Just stay here for a moment," Daniel explained as he and Mr. Woolsey left.

The two men then shut the door in her face, causing her to step back or get her nose pinched off. Sighing in frustration she walked towards the window that viewed out into space. Normally this would be considered a serious structural weakness, but she could also see shutters that probably activated in combat. Besides, the energy field that surrounded the ship was more than sufficient to block enemy fire based on the readings from the battle a week ago.  
What had gotten her really confused was that the two men, Daniel and Woolsey, reacted almost in a panicking way when she said the word Earth. What meaning did the name of her homeworld have to make them act in such a way. Orica didn't know, but she was going to find out.

**XxXxXxXxXx **

Meanwhile Daniel and Woolsey had raced to the bridge in order to talk to Carter about this new information they had just learned. As they entered the bridge Carter was going over a star chart with another officer on the large screen.

"Sam, we need to talk," Daniel said urgently.

Carter turned around, nodded and told the officer to continue her work. She stepped forward to give the officer room to work and to speak to the two delegates.

"What's up Daniel, we just finish processing the coordinates and we'll be entering hyperspace soon" she explained.

"We've got a problem. We were asking the Lt some questions," Daniel started.

"Namely what the acronym UNSC means," Woolsey specified.

Daniel nodded, "UNSC: United Nations Space Command. When we asked what nations she told us it represented the nations of Earth."

The whole bridge went silent at that. Earth was their home world, there was no other planet with that name.

"How can they know about Earth. We're in another galaxy," Carter asked, very surprised.

"No, they don't know about Earth, _our_ Earth. My guess is that they adopted the name from older Ancient documents, but none of their technology indicates Ancient influence."

"But the Ancients did come here, so it might explain why there are humans here and why they are so similar to us," Woolsey surmised.

"But the similarities are too uncanny for this to be a coincidence. For them to be so similar, more so than any other human culture we've encountered," Carter said.

Daniel nodded in agreement, "So what do you think, maybe we have some ascended influence going on here?"

Carter smiled, "You're the expert on them, I defer to your opinion."

"I mean it's possible. Maybe the Ancients wanted another planet like Earth as a backup in case the real one was destroyed. Or we could be dealing with one of those Ancient satellite-civilizations where the satellites kept the humans on those worlds going by sending them various pieces of knowledge. In this case this human civilization was meant to look like Earth," Daniel guessed.

"Did anything in the Ancient database indicate they did something like this?" Woolsey asked Daniel, who spent his free time going over files sent back from Atlantis.

"Not in what I was able to read, which I should point out was less than one percent of the data. It's entirely possible if we keep going through the data we'll find information on this civilization," he suggested.

"So what should we do? This is gona really confuse people on both sides. Who knows what other things we have in common that might cause them not to believe us," Carter said.

Woolsey spoke up, "I suggest we continue according to plan. We can leave out anything that specifically name Earth so as to not arouse suspicion."

"What about things like our ranks, and use of designations like the USS that's plastered on the outside of the ship?" asked Daniel.

"Well, we can just say that with two human cultures there's bound to be similarities that come from being human," Woolsey suggested.

Carter waved her hand, "Alright, you two can figure out the finer details later. You should head back down and see what else you can learn from Lt Orica."

The two nodded and left the bridge, leaving the bridge to resume their duties. Carter turned to Major Marks.

"Marks, are the coordinates punched in?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am. All systems are a go, and we've transmitted the coordinates to the _Dauntless_ who will drop out of hyperspace outside of the solar system so as to avoid detection," he replied.

"Alright, take us into hyperspace," she ordered.

Soon a hyperspace window opened up in front of the 304, and the _Hammond_ accelerated into the hole and moments after it disappeared. It took less than five minutes for the _Hammond_ to reach its destination , due to the relatively close by system. As soon as they exited hyperspace, Marks ran a scan of the entire system as per standard procedure when entering an unknown system, but received a shocking surprise.

"Ma'am, scans are coming up clean. There's nothing in this system except for a few planetary bodies and asteroid belts," he informed her.

"Was this system attacked?" Carter asked, worried that this Covenant had gotten to another of the UNSC's systems.

"No ma'am, there is no trace of any artificial structures in system of any kind. This system hasn't been inhabited by anyone," he clarified.

Carter didn't like that, this sounded like a trap.

"Reilly, have our railguns on standby for defensive fire."  
"Marks, be ready to get us out of here, and tell the marines guarding Lt Orica to bring her here immediately," she ordered, venom in her voice.

Carter had put her trust in people before, and gotten burned for it. She wasn't going to have this happen a second time. Soon the marines brought the UNSC Lt to the bridge, followed Daniel and Woolsey. The Lt looked around the bridge, again analyzing her new environment.

"Lt Orica, may I ask why this system you had us go to is completely uninhabited, and has not seen any inhabitants at all?" she asked angrily.

Orica looked out at the space, surprised they had reached the system so fast. Impossibly fast to be exact: this trip should have taken atleast a few weeks in a UNSC vessel, further indicating at the technological superiority these Taur'i possessed. When she saw the blue tunnel of varying lights after feeling something similar to a Slipspace jump, then reappearing in normal space she thought that they had a system malfunction and needed to drop out of whatever FTL they used.

She turned back to the colonel who looked livid, "We have protocols that prevent us from going directly to a UNSC controlled world or space after an encounter with the Covenant. I had us jump to an uninhabited system so s to make sure were weren't tracked, now we can head to the real coordinates."

"Why didn't you just tell us that? Besides we already told you we can't be tracked in hyperspace," Carter exclaimed.

"I couldn't be sure of that, and I prefer not to inform you of the inner workings of UNSC protocol unless I can help it. If you'll give me your tablet I can give you the real coordinates," she stated, holding her hand out expectantly.

Carter looked at her dubiously before handing her the tablet. Orica took it and quickly punched in the coordinates to Reach, then handed the tablet back to Carter. After looking over the coordinates, she transmitted the new coordinates to Marks's console, who in turn punched them into the nav-computer.

"Take us back into hyperspace," she ordered.

Once again the _Hammond_ jumped back into hyperspace, this time only for about a minute before exiting to normal space.

"This better be the correct solar system," Carter told Orica warningly.

An alert rang out on Marks's console, "Ma'am, sensors detect a large number of ships and orbital stations around a planet in system. Looks like we're in the right place."

Carter looked to Orica and nodded in thanks in thanks, then turned back to Marks.

"Take us into hyperspace and put us at twenty-five thousand kilometers outside of their lines," she ordered.

Again the _Hammond_ was back in hyperspace only for a split second before exiting to where Carter had ordered them to. Using the HUD to see a tactical view of the planet and the ships, they could see one hundred plus ships as well as a number of orbital platforms.

Another alert rang out from Marks's console, "Ma'am, we're being hailed by what seems to be the flagship."

"Show me," Carter ordered.

The HUD zoomed in using the external cameras on the largest ship in their fleet. It was massive, a little larger than three kilometers. Around her there were numerous ships of varying classes.

"On screen," Carter stated as she walked over to the screen in the wall.

The screen came to life showing a man in his fifties or sixties wearing a similar uniform to what Captain Steiss wore, only with more medals and such on it. The symbol on his uniform also indicated a higher rank.

"This is Admiral Roland Freemont of the UNSC Supercarrier _Trafalgar_, identify yourselves or you will be fired upon," the man stated roughly.

"This Colonel Carter of the Taur'i Battlecruiser _George Hammond_. We are here to open talks between our peoples," she stated.

"What? Who are you, I will not ask again," the man stated firmly.

"Ma'am, I'm reading an increase in their power levels, they're bringing weapons online," Reilly spoke up.

Orica quickly walked up to Carter's side and saluted, "Sir, Lt Orica ONI Section 3, SN: 83848-98239-RL. I can vouch for the people on board this ship. If you'll allow it sir, they'd like to send over a data packet that will explain who they are and the events that happened recently at Cascadia."

The Admiral seemed surprised at Orica's presence and even more so at the sound of Cascadia, "Cascadia? We received word that it had been attacked by the Covenant, and since we haven't received word from anyone there we assumed it was lost with total casualties."

"Well they're still alive sir, the Covenant fleet there was destroyed thanks to this ship," she explained.

The bridge on the Trafalgar broke out in whispers and people talking, most having been very surprised and shocked to hear the words 'Covenant fleet destroyed'. The Admiral quickly got his people back under control.

"What do you mean it was destroyed thanks to that ship?" he asked.

Orica looked to Carter who turned around at Marks and nodded. Marks punched in a few commands on his console until a ring sounded out in confirmation of the package just sent to the _Trafalgar_.

"Sir we just sent a data package on via a secured tightbeam on the E-Band, it explains everything," Orica told the Admiral.

Freemont looked at Orica with a hard stare, "And how did they get access to the E-band, Lt?"

"I gave them access sir, it's the only way to send the package without it being intercepted by other ships," Orica simply stated, not caring of the consequences of giving an unknown access to UNSC communications.

The Admiral glared at the ONI operative, but looked off screen so as to confirm the data they had just been sent. A crewman appeared and handed the Admiral a datapad, no doubt holding the information that they had just been sent. Several minutes went by as Freemont read the information, his eyes widening as he continued. Finally he lowered the pad and looked back up at the screen.

"Is... is this a joke?" he asked, no emotion in his voice.

Orica shook her head, "No sir, everything on that datapad is entirely authentic. We overlooked the data ourselves and had an A.I. confirm it as well as you can see. You can have yours authenticate it as well."

Its seems the Admiral didn't take her word for it, since he turned to tell his A.I onboard to go over the data. A few seconds later the Admiral nodded, wiping own his face with his hand as if to relieve himself of all the stress he had just built up.

"Lt, I need you to come aboard the _Trafalgar_ immediately. We have a lot to talk about," he ordered.

Carter spoke up, "Admiral, we have a delegation from our people that we would like to go over if that is all right. We would like to begin talks between our two peoples."

"I'm afraid I don't speak for the peoples of the UNSC, that's above my paygrade. But... as these are not normal circumstances I will allow you to send over your delegates along with Lt Orica. We'll be awaiting your arrival, Freemont out," he stated and cut the transmission.

Carter turned around to face Daniel and Woolsey, "You two should get your things and head down to the hangar."  
She turned to the Lt, "You should go with them. We have a transport in the starboard hangar bay."

Orica nodded and followed Daniel and Woolsey out of the bridge, still trailed by the two marines on security detail. Carter went back to her chair and sat down, happy that they could finally have some real talks with the UNSC, but nervous as well.  
The UNSC was unlike any other human civilization they encountered before, having obviously colonized a large number of worlds and created a large fleet to defend those worlds. But now they were being attacked by a technologically superior force, and Carter couldn't help but draw parallels between her own Earth and the fight against the Goa'uld. She wondered if they would have become like the UNSC if they hadn't discovered the Stargate and had a major jump in technology.

"Marks, keep our shields up at all times and be ready to beam to Jumper and our people away at all times. Reilly have all railguns on standby for defensive fire," Carter ordered, not wanting to have the _Hammond_ caught with their pants down in the face of such a massive fleet.

"Ma'am, we're receiving word from the Jumper, they're ready for departure," Marks stated.

Carter activated the com to the Jumper, "Jumper 1 you have a go. Good luck and be careful out there."

'Let's hope everything goes well, I don't want to be the one to start another war' Carter thought to herself nervously.

**XxXxXxXxXx **

Woolsey, Daniel, and Orica were all sitting in the passenger compartment of the Jumper, surrounded by four marines and one pilot in front. Orica was looking around the Jumper, much like she had when she was brought aboard the Hammond. This transport ship appeared plain on the outside, but like the 304 its looks were deceiving. She was especially surprised that the cockpit had no controls, or any type of controls she'd seen or known. All she could see were crystal like plates, but there was a holographic screen that displayed various readouts and charts that she had no clue how to read.

"Alright people, get ready we're taking off," the pilot, Lt Mathews, said.

Soon the Jumper lifted off the deck and flew out of the hangar toward the UNSC flagship. Orica was surprised at how fast the Jumper was, and how she felt nothing despite the massive amount of G's that they must be facing right now.

"_Trafalgar_ actual, this is Jumper 1 requesting permission to dock, over?" Lt Mathews asked into the radio.

"_Roger Jumper 1, you are cleared for landing in hangar bay A-3, lit up using emergency lights_," the traffic controller on the UNSC ship stated so that they could find which hangar to use.

"Roger that _Trafalgar_ actual, moving to hangar bay A-3," Mathews stated.

The Jumper changer coarse and began moving to the one hangar bay that was lit up on the outside with yellow emergency lights that were usually used for indicating a loss of atmosphere in the hangar or to alert for emergency venting. The Jumper sped into the hangar, then stopped to an almost immediate halt thanks to the inertial dampeners that allowed such a maneuver to be performed without causing the eyeballs of its crew to be shoved back into their brains. Then she lowered herself to the ground and settled gently on the deck.

"Okay, delegate team your good to go. Good luck guys," Mathews said.

The four marines took up positions around Daniel, Woolsey and Orica.  
They were armed with standard ACR's equipped with the newly developed millimeter scanner, allowing for scans behind cover and walls, as well as trinium tipped 6.8mm armor piercing rounds. They also carried Zat's for sidearms, just in case they needed to get into a fight but didn't want to kill UNSC personnel. They also wore the latest in SGC personal armor: black BDU's with standard combat vest fitted with the newly developed trinium plates that were much better at deflecting bullets and energy weapons, in addition they put on shoulder/upper arm armor plates, as well as forearm, thigh and shin plates. These were a new design that were made of a thin layer of trinium, wrapped up with a kevlar bi-weave that offered maximum protection at minimum weight and coverage as well as similarly made helmets.

"You really think you need such a heavy security escort?" asked Orica.

"Its standard procedure for any delegation going offworld to be accompanied by no less than a squad of marines. We've had bad experiences with our people going off world and being taken hostage," Woolsey explained.

"Sirs, you ready?" asked the squad commander Sgt Stevenson.

Daniel nodded, so the marine hit the ramp release button. The ramp lowered slowly, the marines tightening their ranks rifles ready at a moment's notice for an attack. Slowly the marines on point filed out of the Jumper, making sure the immediate area was secure before signaling the okay for the rest of the party to file out. Coming towards them was a small group of UNSC personnel: Admiral Freemont along with several of what looked like bridge officers and their own security detail. The two groups stopped a few feet from each other, neither side doing anything.

Daniel finally stepped forward and extended his hand, "Hello, I'm Dr Daniel Jackson."

Freemont hesitated for a moment before he took the hand, "Pleasure Dr Jackson, Admiral Freemont commander of the FLEETCOM Sector 1 and commanding officer of the UNSC fleet in this system."

"This is Richard Woolsey, and our marine security escort," Daniel stepped aside allowing Woolsey to introduce himself.

"I have to say Dr Jackson, I was very surprised by the report Lt Orica sent over. Too be honest I'm still not sure I believe it, even with our A.I.'s confirmation," he stated matter of factly.

"Well we can help clarify any misgivings you might have," Woolsey said.

The Admiral nodded, "Yes, follow these men they'll lead you to a room we have set up for the duration of your time here."

The Taur'i group followed the UNSC detail back the way they came, heading toward one of the elevators that would lead them to deck seven. As Lt Orica was about to follow she was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see Admiral Freemont standing there, a hard look in his eyes.

"Sir?" she asked, unsure as to what he wanted.

Freemont folded his arms, "I know that this is not what ONI does. Bringing an unidentified ship into _Reach's_ space!? Under normal circumstances you'd have face a firing squad already."

Orica just stood there silently, knowing that what he was saying was completely true. Had one of her subordinates done the same thing, she would have already put a bullet in their head. But she would understand why, she knew that this had to be brought to the attention of HIGHCOM, even if it meant risking her own life by violating the most important protocol in use by the UNSC today.

"But, in light of recent events I have obviously decided to postpone that until such a time that we have determined the intentions of these... Taur'i and are no longer considered a threat," he continued.  
He came very close to her face, "But if these people aren't on the up and up, if they even so much as hint that they have harmful intentions towards Earth or any one of her colonies it's your head. Literally."

With that said, he moved around the ONI operative and towards the elevator where the Taur'i delegates were just entering. Taking a deep breath, Orica quickly followed after the old Admiral into the elevator, thinking that her fate hanged on whether or not her judgment had been wrong. She prayed that it wasn't, not only for own safety but for the safety of Earth. The UNSC was already fighting the Covenant, and these Taur'i had shown their technology to atleast equal that of the Covenant. If they decided to take an aggressive stance against the UNSC, the UNSC wouldn't survive. Not a war on two fronts.

**XxXxXxXxXx **

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter, sorry that it wasn't very exciting. Next one will be more so, cya. **


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